Many of the cables maintained by electric and telephone utilities and telecommunication carriers, and many of the pipes maintained by water and gas utilities and pipeline carriers are buried underground for esthetic reasons as well as to protect such cables and pipes from damage. However, underground burial is no guarantee against damage. Indeed, it is not uncommon for a buffed cable or pipe to be severed, usually with disastrous results. For example, when a buried cable carrying telecommunications traffic is severed, a major service disruption usually occurs. When a buffed pipe carrying natural gas is severed, an explosion and/or fire often results, causing property damage and injury or even loss of life.
The most common way a buried cable or pipe is severed is by excavating in an area near the cable or pipe. Often, a contractor, using a piece of excavation equipment such as a backhoe or the like, will begin excavating at a site unaware that one or more buffed cables and/or pipes lie beneath the ground being dug. Given the power of present-day excavation equipment, an operator of such equipment can easily sever a cable or pipe very quickly. After a buried cable or pipe is severed, the utility, telecommunications or pipeline carrier that maintained the cable or pipe usually will pursue a legal claim against those responsible for the damage. Consequently, contractors who perform excavations now face ever increasing insurance premiums to insure themselves against possible damage claims as a consequence of severing a buried cable and/or pipe.
Because of the enormous adverse impact suffered when a buffed cable and/or pipe is severed, utilities, telecommunications carriers, and pipeline carriers who maintain buried cables and/or pipes have implemented stringent measures to prevent this type of harm. For example, AT&T requires that one or more service technicians be dispatched to the site of an excavation where any AT&T buried cables may be present to locate such cables in advance of any digging, provided that the contractor undertaking such excavation has given advance notice. Once a buffed cable has been located, at least one technician must remain with the excavating contractor during excavation to protect the buried cable against damage. Other utilities and pipeline carriers that maintain buried cables and/or pipes have implemented similar protective measures. Dispatching a service technician to an excavation site to locate a buried cable or pipe as well as to monitor the excavation is an expensive proposition.
Thus, there is a need for a technique that reduces the incidence of severing a buried cable and/or pipe by a piece of excavating equipment as that equipment is operated to excavate a site proximate the buried cable and/or pipe.